The figure standing boldly forward in the center represents "Lyric
Poetry," crowned with a wreath of laurel and touching the strings of a
lyre. The feelings that most commonly inspire her songs are personified on
either side. On the right are "Pathos," looking upward, as if calling on
heaven to allay her grief; "Truth," a beautiful nude woman (the naked
truth) stands securely upright; and in the corner "Devotion" sits absorbed
in contemplation. On the left are "Passion," enraptured, with her arms
thrown out in a graceful movement; "Beauty," who sits calmly
self-contained; and "Mirth," the nude figure of a little boy, who invites
her to play.

In each of the smaller lunettes, the artists depicts youthful male
figures who are characters in the works of noted British and American
poets; represented on the south side of the corridor are Alfred, Lord
Tennyson 1809-1892, John Keats (1809-1892), William Wordsworth (1770-1850),
and Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882); and on the north side John Milton
(1608-1674) and William Shakespeare (1564-1616).

Photography by Carol M. Highsmith.

"The Poets, who on earth have made us-"

In the large lunette above the window at the opposite end of the
gallery, the artist depicts an idyllic summer landscape with three
seated female figures and a youth with a lamb. At the top center are
lines from Wordsworth's "Personal Talk". On the left and right,
respectively, the figures represent the joyful feelings and solemn
moods of lyric poetry.

Lyric Poetry

The figure standing boldly forward in the center represents "Lyric
Poetry," crowned with a wreath of laurel and touching the strings of a
lyre. The feelings that most commonly inspire her songs are personified
on either side. On the right are "Pathos," looking upward, as if
calling on heaven to allay her grief; "Truth," a beautiful nude woman
(the naked truth) stands securely upright; and in the corner "Devotion"
sits absorbed in contemplation. On the left are "Passion," enraptured,
with her arms thrown out in a graceful movement; "Beauty," who sits
calmly self-contained; and "Mirth," the nude figure of a little boy,
who invites her to play.

Shakespeare's "Venus and
Adonis"

Tennyson's "Ganymede"

Tennyson's Ganymede is depicted upon the back of an eagle,
the form taken by Jupiter when he brought the boy from his earthly home
to be the cupbearer of the gods. The lines referred to are from
Tennyson's "The Palace of Art."